Lecture 4: Working Memory

Question 1

Learning objectives:

Answer 1

Part 1: The information processing approach to cognition.

Part 2: The development of working memory.

Part 3: Individual differences in working memory.

1. Explain what working memory is.
2. Describe the information processing approach to cognition.
3. Discuss what processes drive the development of working memory.
4. Discuss the impact having a poor working memory might have on a child.

Question 2

Part 1: The information processing approach to cognition.

What is working memory?

Answer 2

• The small amount of information that can be held in mind and used in the execution of cognitive tasks (Cowan, 2014).
• This is in contrast to long-term memory which is the vast amount of information saved over one’s life.

Question 3

Part 1: The information processing approach to cognition.

Brief history of working memory…

Answer 3

John Locke (1690)- distinguished between contemplation (holding an idea in mind) and memory (the power to revive an idea after it has disappeared from the mind)

William James (1890) - wrote about a distinction between primary memory (the items in consciousness and the trailing edge of what is perceived in the world) and secondary memory (the items in storage but not currently in consciousness)

Ebbinghaus (1885/1913) was one of the first to run memory experiments, used self as subject - tried to memorise lists of nonsense syllables. Found it easy to recall lists of 7, harder to recall lists of 12. Also tested the effect of delays between memorising and recall - found he forgot most words in first 20 minutes –> Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

Question 4

Part 1: The information processing approach to cognition.

Information processing approach to cognition: context

Answer 4

Approach to explaining how cognitive development occurs was developed in the 1950s as an alternative to behaviourism (behaviour is a result of conditioning, not thought).

The central idea is humans are seen as processing systems: we encode, store and retrieve information and then produce a behavioural output (action)

Essentially a computer metaphor

Question 5

Part 1: The information processing approach to cognition.

Assumptions of the I.P.A to cognition

Answer 5

• Info moves through a series of stores
• Info moves serially (the product for one stage of processing is the input for the next stage of processing and so on…)
• Cognitive system has a limited capacity, so, tasks and mental processes can be placed on a continuum relative to how much capacity they require –> varies from an automatic process to an effortful process

E.g., most of us have enough processing ability to walk and chew gum at the same time. But add in a maths task as well and a change in our rate of walking or gum chewing will be noticeable. Once other things are added that we need to do, different tasks will start to interfere with one another.

Question 6

Part 1: The information processing approach to cognition.

Information processing approach to cognition: Origins

Answer 6

• Atkinson and Schiffrin (1968) devised one of the first information processing models of memory
• They proposed that we don’t just have one system or process for storing information in memory. Memory actually consists of several stores
• Therefore, memory is made up of a series of parts that work together as a process

Question 7

Part 1: The information processing approach to cognition.

IPA: First Model

At A-level –> Multistore model

(Atkinson and Schiffrin)

Draw from ppt onto mindmap

Answer 7

• The sensory register processes information attended by our senses – provided it is processed in the short period before decay/being overwritten by other information.
• Short term memory is the space where information you have attended to is stored; it’s also where information is placed when its retrieved from LTM. How efficient this process of storage and retrieval is, is dependent on how proficient we are at attending to the right information in the first place; what strategies we use to store information and can be dependent on retrieval cues.
• Long-term memory is where things are stored permanently.

Question 8

Part 1: The information processing approach to cognition.

IPA: Current model

(Baddeley and Hitch)

Draw from ppt onto mindmap

Answer 8

Over many years, research most notably by Baddeley, Hitch + Gatherole has added to this model.

• STM is replaced by WM which is both a short-term memory store and a place where information is actively processed.
• Working memory is where we live, mentally speaking. It’s the system that stores information long enough for us to evaluate it. It’s where information is processed and transformed.

So if you imagine you are going shopping with a mental shopping list, this would be where you have your list and when you buy something you would update your memory and knock that item off your list.

• Its capacity is limited and if something is not done to the information contained within it, it is lost. But if some operation is done on it e.g., verbal rehearsal, it will be transferred to long-term memory.

Question 9

Part 1: The information processing approach to cognition.

Memory in Development

Answer 9

Cognitive development involves changes in:

• “Hardware” like the capacity of memory and speed of information processing
• “Software” like children’s ability to use strategy

Question 10

Part 2: The development of working memory

Processing limitations - name them

Answer 10

Brainerd 1983:

1. Encoding limitations
2. Retrieval limitations
3. Storage/capacity limitations
4. Metacognitive limitations

Question 11

Part 2: The development of working memory

Processing limitations: Encoding limitations

Answer 11

The crucial part about a task or experience might not be encoded. This may be driven by a failure to attend to the right information or failure to use an encoding strategy.

Attention:

• young kids have diff atteding to only important bits of tasks - poor selective attention
• older children attend to the right aspects initially so perform better in tasks

Encoding strategies

Rehearsal:

• The repetition of information
• kids under 10 were intitially thought not to use rehearsal, now we know they can use it but in a more/less effective way than adults (kids repeat words in order, adults group by theme)

Evidence rehearsal helps:

• With age, kids can say words faster and memory span increases accordingly
• bilingual studies - welsh kids have better number memory for english numbers than welsh because they can be articulated quicker

Organisation:
- kids <10 don’t organise items into categories for easier memorisation

Elaboration:
- like adults, kids remember pairs of words better if provided with an association between them, but kids seem unable to form associations themselves, or if they can they are less effective (distinctive) elaborations

Question 12

Part 2: The development of working memory

Processing limitations: Retrieval limitations

Answer 12

Children may know the retrieval strategy they need to apply, but retrieve the wrong one from memory (retrieve rules for division rather than multiplication).
- reflects a lack of knowledge and experience using retrieval strategies

Adults are good at coming up with retrieval strategies e.g retrace steps to find keys. While 10y/os can name at least 1 strategy, half of 5y/os can

Question 13

Part 2: The development of working memory

Processing limitations: Storage/ Capacity limitations

Answer 13

This limits the amount of information a child can store and thus remember.

Storage is typically measured by giving a randomly ordered selection of unrelated items (numbers or words) that need to be recalled in the exact order.

Storage capacity increases with age

But… Experience can affect storage ability - when tested on chess positions child chess experts outperformed non-expert adults, but adults outperformed kids on digits - it is experience of specific domains that affects storage limits

Span tests only measure STM. A more sensitive test of memory storage limits is when info is transformed as well as stored. Taps into storage and processing side of WM.

Working memory span is usually two items less than a child’s short-term memory span

Question 14

Part 2: The development of working memory

Processing limitations: Metacognitive limitations

Answer 14

Metacognition - thinking about thinking

Due to poor metacognitive skills and limited experience, kids may not be aware they have memory limitations so they may not make an effort to encode something properly.

• children overestimate their own memory
• v young children possess too limited WM capacity so that use of strategies would impair, rather than improve recall.
• children don‘t realise how useful strategies are
• children have less world knowledge that other information can be integrated with to store it better (the chess player study). But…

More knowledge can also sometimes lead to more errors in recall, such as:

• “Recalling“ details that had never been mentioned
• Overgeneralising facts to situations in which they don‘t apply
• Adding facts that fit in with previous knowledge but did not apply to a specific situation

Question 15

Part 3: Individual differences in Working Memory

Working memory and language

Answer 15

Working memory supports other developing skills:

• Language
• Academic skills (particularly maths)
• General school readiness

Working memory is important for vocab acquisition before children start school
- 3- to 4-year-olds with better working memory learned novel labels for toys significantly faster than children with poor working memory.

Working memory is also important for language comprehension. This helps when processing complex sentences.

However, because this is a correlational relationship it is possible that children with better language ability are able to use better strategies on working memory tasks…

Question 16

Part 3: Individual differences in Working Memory

Working memory and Academic skills

Answer 16

Working memory skills at age 4 predict reading and writing skills at age 6, independent of Socio Economic Status (SES).

Working memory at age 5 was a better predictor of literacy and numeracy at age 11 than IQ.

Working memory skills in 7- to 8-year-olds predict maths achievement, even after controlling for vocabulary.

Question 17

Part 3: Individual differences in Working Memory

Working memory and Maths

Answer 17

Shift from procedural based strategies to memory based strategies in maths

• Visual-spatial WM is most strongly associated with maths performance in younger children
• Whereas Verbal WM is most strongly associated with maths performance in older children

Different types of working memory are also used depending on the format of the maths problem…

Horizontal = verbal 
Vertical = visual

Question 18

Part 3: Individual differences in Working Memory

Cognitive profile of a child with poor working memory

Answer 18

Children with poor working memory are unable to meet the learning demands of structured activities, because their working memory becomes overloaded and the crucial information needed to guide the activity is lost. This leads children to guess or abandon the activity.

Around 10% of school children have poor working memory.
Poor working memory profile:

• Normal social relationships with peers
• Reserved in group activities
• Poor academic progress in reading and maths
• Difficulties in following instructions
• Problems with learning activities that require both storage and processing
• Place-keeping difficulties,
• Appears to be inattentive, to have short attention span, and to be distractible.

The behavioural profile of the children is fairly constant and unlike disorders such as ADHD, tends not to fluctuate markedly from time to time or day to day. The children also do not show the high levels of hyperactive and impulsive behaviour associated with ADHD

Question 19

Part 3: Individual differences in Working Memory

How can teachers help children with poor working memory?

Answer 19

They can provide both auditory and visual support to ease the load on children’s memory in the classroom.

Auditory support - making clear, short and specific instructions, repeating if necessary

Visual support - write instructions on the board, use classroom checklists and use visual aids in learning e.g. number lines in math

Question 20

Part 3: Individual differences in Working Memory

How can psychologists help children with poor working memory?

Answer 20

They can test what kind of interventions are most effective for children with poor working memory.

Interventions can be:

• Specific training on whatever the child is having trouble with (e.g., addition problems).
• Cognitive training targeting a domain-general skill like working memory.
• Training targeting metacognitive aspects of memory such as strategies.

Question 21

Summary:

Answer 21

• Working memory is where all of the crucial information processing operations happen.
• Working memory transforms, processes, and retrieves information and passes it to long-term memory.
• Children‘s memories are limited in at all stages of information processing.
• As children develop, storage size increases, their metacognitive awareness increases, as well as their efficiency at encoding and retrieving information.
• Working memory underpins other high-level cognitive skills and predicts children’s academic skills. So understanding working memory can help us understand how we can support children with working memory problems.